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By LINDSAY WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — An enormous new tranche of information on millionaire financier and intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein launched Friday revealed particulars of his communications with the rich and highly effective, some not lengthy earlier than he died by suicide in 2019.
The Justice Division mentioned it was disclosing greater than 3 million pages of paperwork, in addition to hundreds of movies and pictures, as required by a legislation handed by Congress. By Friday night, greater than 600,000 paperwork had been revealed on-line. Hundreds of thousands of information that prosecutors had recognized as doubtlessly topic to launch beneath the legislation stay beneath wraps, nonetheless, drawing criticism from Democrats.
Right here’s what we all know to date in regards to the information now being reviewed by a workforce of Related Press reporters:
Epstein talked politics with Steve Bannon, ex-Obama official
The paperwork present Epstein exchanged tons of of pleasant texts with Steve Bannon, a high advisor to President Donald Trump, some months earlier than Epstein’s demise.
They mentioned politics, journey and a documentary Bannon was mentioned to be planning that will assist salvage Epstein’s repute.
In March 2019, Bannon requested Epstein if he may provide his airplane to select him up in Rome.
A few months later, Epstein messaged to Bannon: “Now you’ll be able to perceive why trump wakes up in the midst of the night time sweating when he hears you and I are mates.”
The context is unclear from the paperwork, which had been launched with many redactions and little clear group.
One other 2018 alternate targeted on Trump’s threats on the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he had named to the put up simply the yr prior.
Across the similar time, Epstein additionally communicated with Kathy Ruemmler, a lawyer and former Obama White Home official. In a typo-filled e-mail, he warned that Democrats ought to cease demonizing Trump as a Mafia-type determine at the same time as he derided the president as a “maniac.”
Bannon didn’t instantly reply to a message from the AP looking for remark. Ruemmler mentioned via a spokesperson she was related to Epstein professionally throughout her time as a lawyer in personal follow and now “regrets ever realizing him.”
He additionally chatted with Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick about island visits
Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk emailed Epstein in 2012 and 2013 about visiting his notorious island compound, the scene of many allegations of sexual abuse.
Epstein inquired in an e-mail about how many individuals Musk would love flown by helicopter, and Musk responded it could probably be simply him as his associate on the time. “What day/night time would be the wildest social gathering on our island?” he wrote, in response to the Justice Division data.
It’s not instantly clear if the island visits occurred. Spokespersons for Musk’s firms, Tesla and X, didn’t instantly reply to emails looking for remark Friday.
Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025
Epstein additionally invited Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to the island in Dec. 2012. Lutnick’s spouse enthusiastically accepted the invitation and mentioned they might arrive on a yacht with their kids. The 2 additionally had drinks on one other event in 2011, in response to a schedule. Six years later, they emailed in regards to the building of a constructing throughout the road from each of their houses.
Lutnick has distanced himself from Epstein, calling him “gross” and saying in 2025 that he lower ties many years in the past. He didn’t reply to an emailed request for touch upon Friday afternoon.
The data even have new particulars on Epstein’s incarceration and suicide
Epstein was arrested on federal intercourse trafficking costs in July 2019, and located lifeless in his cell simply over a month later.
The most recent batch of paperwork consists of emails between investigators about Epstein’s demise, together with an investigator’s statement that his last communication doesn’t appear to be a suicide be aware. A number of investigations have decided that Epstein’s demise was a suicide.
The data additionally element a trick that jail staffers used to idiot the media gathered outdoors whereas Epstein’s physique was eliminated: they used containers and sheets to create what seemed to be a physique and loaded it right into a white van labeled as belonging to the Workplace of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The reporters adopted the van when it left the jail, not realizing that Epstein’s precise physique was loaded right into a black automobile, which departed “unnoticed,” in response to the interview notes.
Related Press reporters throughout the nation contributed to this story, together with Michael R. Sisak and Philip Marcelo in New York, Cal Woodward in Washington, Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, and Meg Kinnard in South Carolina.
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